Gareth Southgate gave England staff handwritten notes before World Cup

Gareth Southgate gave England staff handwritten notes before World Cup

Image England have had more shots on target and scored one more goal than Croatia

Kristopher Love
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13 July, 2018, 15:08

The Three Lions' failure to reach their first World Cup final in 52 years was greeted with desolation in the stadium in Moscow.

At the last World Cup in 2014 for example, the footballing body took home $560,000, and they will surely be hoping for big bets to come in before Monday's final between France and Croatia.

Against England, they became the first team in World Cup history to win a semifinal without the benefit of spot kicks in a game they initially trailed.

While most of his colleagues picked a Brazil v Spain final, McManaman barely put a foot wrong and backed France to beat Croatia in the final.

"We were anxious", Katich said.

He will join a long line of famous referees to have ever manned a World Cup final.

It's been a thrilling tournament in Russian Federation but one pundit has known for some time that England would lose to Croatia in the last four.

Thomas Meunier says beating England to the bronze medal is now the minimum requirement for Belgium at the 2018 World Cup.

"The team and the individuals will be better in a couple of years time".

The Times and The Guardian said it was the "end of the dream" while i said "Southgate's team will still return as heroes after superb World Cup effort".

"Semi-finals, they've done what they had to do, they took us to the semi-finals".

"I am immensely proud by the way the players have played and we can see by the reaction of the supporters, they felt the same".

"It's been great to get to this stage but we wanted to go on and win it".

"The fans are excited to watch us again and that is how we have to keep it".

Loud cheers rang out after each goal, fans waved the red, white and blue national flag, and after the final whistle Croatian TV showed wild celebrations breaking out in towns and cities. "Extra time, I knew it was on the cards we weren't going to win that".